Preparing iron oxid for use in blast-furnaces.



v PATENT DFFICE.

L'TLEY WEDGE, OF ALRDMORE, PENNSYLVANIA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 14, 1905.

Application filed November 1, 1904:. Renewed August 23, 1905- Serial No. 275,509.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, UrLnYWnDen, a citizen of the United States, residing in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, have invented certain Improvements in Preparing Iron Oxid for Use in Blast- Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to prepare for use in a blast-furnace relatively fineparticles oi' oxid of iron, such as the red hematite ores and the cinder resulting from the desnlt'uri- I zation of iron pyrites in the manufacture of sulfuric acid. These relatively fine particles of oxid of iron are not available for use in the blast-furnace, first, because of their tendency to pack and render the furnace charge too dense for the passage of the blast therethrough, and, secondly, because when a highpressure blast is used they are liable to be carried off thereby and deposited in the flues of the furnace. I have found that such finelydivided iron oxids can be rendered available for blast-furnace use by combination with argillaceous matter-such as clay, clay shale, clay slate, or argillaceous limestone-if the same is finely divided and mixed with the finely-divided iron oxid and the mixture then subjected to heat. The mixture should contain about three per cent. of the argillaceous matter and should be subjected to a temperature of about twenty-four hundred (2,400) 5 degrees Fahrenheitthat is tosay, to a temperature high enough for fusing the iron-oxid 1 particles, the result being an agglomeration of the iron-oxid particles and theargillaccous 1 matter and the forming of lumps of suchsizc that the resultant product resembles gravel, in which form it IS readily available for use in a blast-furnace. Preferably the mixture during the time that it is being heated is subjected to agitation, the most convenient method of accomplishing such agitation being to feed the mixture through a rotating kiln of suitable length whose axis is slightly inclined in respect to the horizontal, the kiln being heated either externally or internally, or both.

The advantage of using argillaceous matter as a means of agglomerating the iron-oxid particles is that it is cheap and always available and answers the intended purpose quite as effectively as the more expensive and less accessible materials which have heretofore been proposed.

Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to obtain by Letters Patent 1. The mode herein described of preparing relatively line particles of iron oxid for use in a blast-furnace, said mode consisting in mixing said particles with powdered argillaceous matter and subjecting the mixture to heat sufficient to fuse the iron-oxid particles, substantially as specified.

2. The mode herein described of preparing relatively tine particles of iron oxid for use in a blast-furnace, said mode consisting in mixing said particles with powdered argillticeous matter and then subjecting the mixture 1 simultaneously to agitation and to heat suiiicicnt to fuse the iron-oxid particles, substantially as specified.

[n tcsti mony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the prcscnceol two subscribing witnesses.

UTLEY WEDGE.

Witnesses: I Mn B. MoDrmio'rr, Jos. ll. KLEIN. 

